


If You See Something...

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo 2k18 [13]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Blackmail, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Non-Consensual Touching, Prompt: Blackmail, Protective Pidge | Katie Holt, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 17:57:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16269404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: The team attends a very important peace summit, and some sensitive information falls into the wrong hands, to Keith's detriment.





	If You See Something...

**Author's Note:**

> Please be careful with this one guys. Nothing happens and there's nothing explicit but if you're sensitive to scenes of sexual assault please be careful with this fic.

The planet rising before them was gorgeous, even Keith had to admit that. The entire considerable surface was covered in what seemed to be one single city-- buildings that sparkled even to them all the way out in orbit. Some of the skyscrapers even protruded through the clouds. Metal structures ringed the planet on several axes, most likely a complex system of space stations. 

Keith didn’t need to see Allura’s face to know her expression would be bittersweet as she remembered Altea. But the planet wasn’t what they were here for.

“Is that one it?” Asked Lance, pointing out the front windows at one of the seven moons that orbited the planet. If the planet gleamed, this moon  _ glittered _ , covered in gaudy golden buildings. So many expensive luxury spacecraft were swarming it that for once the Castle probably wouldn’t be even the slightest bit out of place.

“Yes, that’s it,” Coran answered, cheerful as ever as Allura led the Castle closer to the moon. “Alteriq III, the largest casino and resort in the known universe.”

Pidge frowned and crossed her arms across her chest. “I’m still questioning the decision to hold a peace summit at a casino, of all places.”

Keith silently agreed, but Shiro seemed to be on the side of the Alteans.

“It’s actually a good idea, for them at least. It’s neutral ground, not controlled by any one government, and they can get everyone in a good mood before negotiations.”

Keith snorted. “Yeah, a good mood. You mean drunk.”

Shiro just shrugged. “It’s big enough to hold everyone.”

Because yes, for the first time since Voltron returned, having enough room for all of the dignitaries was a concern. Usually the Castle’s ballroom was more than large enough, but this time they were meeting with leaders from over a dozen planets and dozens more moons in this system, all at the same time. They really did need the extra space. 

“Well  _ I  _ think it’s gonna be a great time,” said, predictably, Lance as he tossed an arm over Hunk’s shoulder. “Food, games, girls, it’s everything I love all at once.”

“Yeah,” Keith muttered quietly to himself, “Only because you’re not the one doing the hard work.”

Luckily Lance didn’t hear him, but Shiro gave him a shove to the shoulder and a look. 

“Alright Paladins, we’ll be arriving soon. Please go make yourselves presentable.” He cringed slightly at Allura’s order-- he hated the stupid formal stuff Allura made them wear to these things. Almost like an Earth tux for all of them, even Pidge, except color coded to match their Lions and somehow even more uncomfortable. But Allura could never be persuaded to let them wear anything else (he’d tried), so he turned to follow the other paladins off the bridge.

“Ah, actually Keith, could I talk to you for a moment?”

Keith paused, glancing back at her over his shoulder. Shiro was beside her, smiling gently, so he probably wasn’t in trouble, but that didn’t stop his stomach from doing an anxious little flip. Still he nodded and hung back until the other paladins had filed out the door. 

“Is there a problem, Princess?”

“No, not much of one. More of a request.”

Keith raised a pointed brow, and Allura fidgeted with the end of a strand of hair. “I just needed to ask you if you would leave your knife in the Castle for tonight's event.”

The other brow rose to join the first. He never went anywhere without his knife. Allura knew that. 

The Princess allowed herself a tiny grimace at his expression before smoothing it back into her regal, authoritarian one. “I need you to understand. This system has spent centuries holding back the Galra from its borders, and has lost countless lives in the process. We need to be careful about the image we present to them.”

Oh. 

“You don’t want them to know I’m Galra,” Keith said with a sigh. It wasn’t a question so much as a statement of fact, but Allura nodded nonetheless. “Then why am I going at all?”

“Everyone has heard of the legend of Voltron and it’s five paladins. Five. You have to be there or it’ll raise questions.”

He flicked his gaze over to Shiro, who was watching the exchange sympathetically, before heaving a heavier sigh. 

“Fine. I’ll leave my knife. Just make sure to tell Lance not to start running his mouth.”

“Thank you, Keith.” Allura seemed sincere, at least, so he accepted the thanks with a nod. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should also go get ready for the summit.” 

Coran followed the princess out of the room, leaving only Shiro and Keith.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright Shiro, I can deal with it.”

“I know.” He put his hand on Keith’s shoulder and squeezed, easing a bit of the anxiety that had begun to form. “I just wish that you didn’t have to.”

* * *

Keith isn’t sure why this didn’t occur to him before, but a whole moon dedicated to being a casino filled with dignitaries from dozens of planets was  _ loud.  _ Loud and crowded as hell, and he immediately counted it amongst the worst events of his life, below losing Shiro but above Sendak breaking into the Castle. People were everywhere, crowding the Paladins towards the entrance to the main building, and every time someone brushed against his back was like being zapped by a live wire. 

The empty weight where his knife usually hung wasn’t helping, either. He didn’t even have his bayard; Shiro had decided only Pidge should bring hers, and only because hers had a stun setting. Which, while it made him antsy and nervous, might’ve been a good thing-- the entrance they were approaching seemed to be covered by a blue holographic screen, and the various aliens were lining up to go through it one by one. Probably some sort of weapons scan. 

_ Good thing Pidge’s bayard isn’t shaped like a gun.  _

“Remember, paladins,” Allura called over the babble of the surrounding crowd, “Your best behavior, please. This treaty is  _ very  _ important.”

The other paladins probably answered, but Keith didn’t hear. He was busy trying to force his fists and jaw to unclench. 

They obligingly lined up for the door, making a sort of rainbow out of their color coded suits. Honestly Keith found them a little tacky, but it was hardly out of place here, where the aliens themselves were all kinds of colors and their clothing even more so. The alien working the door, reading the results of each person's scan off of a screen, was bright blue with cotton candy hair, fully orange eyes, and the ever-popular four arms.

“Why do so many aliens have four arms?” Pidge fumed from her position behind him in the line. “Why didn’t humans evolve four arms? I bet they’re so much more efficient!”

Shiro passed through the blue screen and paused on the other side. The alien glanced over his scan, pressed a button, and the screen flashed emerald for a moment, indicating Shiro could continue. Keith watched this all carefully as he half listened to Hunk’s response.

“I mean, what use would we even have for four arms?”

“Literally everything we do with two arms, just double. How do you not think this is a good idea?”

Allura passed through the screen. Then Lance. And Coran. All of them got the green go-ahead from the doorman/bouncer. 

“But wouldn’t they also require that much more energy to fuel?”

“It would so be worth it.”

“Apparently evolution doesn’t agree with you.”

Keith stepped through the screen, feeling a slight tingle go over his skin, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. There was a long pause where he just stood there, waiting just long enough for worry to begin bubbling, and when he glanced back at the alien he found him staring back. They locked eyes. Slowly, the alien pushed a button on his tablet. 

Green.

Keith released his breath and continued into the building. Judging by the continuing babble from behind him, no one else had noticed the strange pause, so he shook off the crawling sensation on his spine and focused at the task at hand.

The building they were using for the event was apparently more on the resort side of things rather than the casino. The massive entrance hall seemed to be serving double as a ballroom, the golden floors reflecting blobs of color from the people standing on it, grand staircases flanking it on either side and leading up to chambers where the actual politics would be happening in a couple of hours. Here and there along the back wall were small archways leading into dark halls-- presumably hotel rooms. 

Keith put his shoulders back and resisted the urge to find refuge in the shadows. There were still people everywhere, bustling about in pairs and groups through the cunningly placed food tables, and the room was contained enough to amplify their voices and make it even louder than it had been outside. He could feel the headache beginning in his temples already.

“Alright!” Lance suddenly crowed from beside him, making him flinch. “Party time!”

“Lance please, this is an important political event.” Allura’s voice was stern, matching perfectly to the gold and pink regalia she’d adorned herself in. She looked every bit a queen, especially when she pinned Lance with a glare. “Shiro, Coran, and I will seek out the other leaders. The rest of you try to amuse yourselves until the main ceremony.” She began to turn away, then stopped and glanced over her shoulder.

“And please stay out of trouble.”

Then she was gone, taking Shiro and Coran with her, and a second later the other paladins vanished as well. Lance probably looking for someone to talk to (or flirt with, more likely) and Pidge and Hunk in pursuit of food. Leaving Keith alone in a sea of strangers with no idea what to do with himself.

Yeah. He just loved parties.

Trying to be the least awkward he possibly could be, Keith wandered to the edges of the room, where he could keep a wall to his back and an eye on the crowd. Not having his knife was making him extra paranoid this time around. 

There were many posters and notices plastered to the walls around the room, and Keith distracted himself by using the translator installed on his communicator to read them. It was what he expected to see in a place like this,  _ No Running in the Lobby, Please See Front Desk for Luggage Assistance, Free Breakfast for Platinum Members,  _ etc. Then, between two archways, was quite a different poster. 

This one portrayed what must’ve been one of the local aliens, blue skinned and four armed, half in light and half in shadow. The shadowed portion was barely visible except for one thing: A glowing yellow orb where the eye would’ve been. Keith’s stomach knotted up, but he raised the communicator to his eye anyway. 

In red print, across the top of the poster, was written,  _ Halfbreeds are a danger to us all!  _

And at the bottom,  _ IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING! _

Throat tight, Keith turned off the communicator and shoved it in his pocket. He didn’t translate any of the other posters as he finished his lap around the room, but he saw a couple of other ones that were probably sporting the same message based on the artwork. He ground his teeth and tried his best to ignore the sour feeling at the back of his throat.

After two more laps he got bored of just walking in circles and retreated to a small corner beside one of the staircases. It was out of the way and quieter than the main party area, but still decently in view so that Allura couldn’t get mad at him for trying to hide. And for a long while he stood there, idly watching the people flitting about and thinking about nothing in particular. 

According to the time on his communicator, there was only a half an hour left until the ceremony when he was approached by one of the staff, another four armed blue alien in a green vest, stiff and formal.

“Red Paladin?”

Keith, who had been staring off into space, jolted and rapidly straightened up from his slump on the wall.

“Uh, yeah?” He cringed at his terrible response, but the alien didn’t seem bothered, merely holding out a neatly folded bit of paper to him. 

“A message for you.”

A frown creased his lips, but he took it anyway and the messenger bustled off. The paper itself was a bit rougher than the kind they had on Earth, the texture seeming to catch on the pads of his fingers as he unfolded the note. The writing was in apple red ink, looping and elegant, and Keith had to dig out his communicator again to read it. 

_ Red Paladin, _

_ I know your heritage.  _

_ Meet me in room 162 in five doboshes. _

Three lines. Three lines was all it took to make cold wind up Keith’s limbs and lodge his heart firmly in his throat. Who could’ve found out? Had he given himself away somehow? Why were they even bothering-- why hadn’t every security guard in the building already come down on him? 

With shaking hands, he checked the time. Three doboshes until the mysterious person wanted to meet. Goddamnit, he wasn’t being given time to think this through, there wasn’t time to weigh the risks or track down one of the other paladins in the crowd. He had to make a choice-- take the time to find one of the others and risk the person spilling the secret and ruining this whole peace summit, or go see what they wanted. 

The decision was clear. 

* * *

Room 162 was halfway down one of the shadowed hallways leading off from the ballroom. The door was unassuming, exactly like all the others in the hall, but still his fingers twitched in trepidation as he reached for the handle.

It was unlocked and swung open easily for him, swinging shut just as easily once he’d stepped inside. It looked like a medium priced hotel room back on Earth: cheap furniture painted and glossed to look expensive, all in gaudy patterns and colors that were muted by the fact that not a single light was on inside. Despite the darkness he could still make out the shape of someone sitting on the end of the queen sized bed, watching him. 

Keith’s eyes adjusted quickly, and it was with dull shock that he recognized the alien who’d been scanning the guests at the entrance. He smirked sharply at Keith, one of his four hands running idly through his pale pink hair while the others hovered near his crossed legs, the very picture of smug confidence. 

“Red Paladin,” he greeted, voice as sickly sweet as his hair color. Keith swallowed hard.

“How did you find out?” He had an idea, but he needed to know for sure.

“The scan wasn’t just for weapons.” Ah. It was as he suspected. Good to know. 

Silence hung heavy in the air between them, Keith weighing his options and the other man letting him do so, waiting with stifling patience. 

He didn’t have a weapon on him, and no backup. Using the communicator would be too obvious. He might be able to take this guy hand to hand, but right as he thought it the alien held something up in one of his hands-- a communicator of his own, the screen glowing pale mint in the darkness. 

“I have a message all typed up here,” he said, “Ready to be sent. If you so much as move a finger when I don’t tell you to I’ll send it, and the rest of Voltron will immediately be arrested for concealing a halfbreed spy and smuggling it into the summit.”

The words crossed his mind,  _ I’m not a spy,  _ but he kept his mouth shut. He knew it didn’t matter. This man didn’t care if he was actually a spy or not, he just wanted to use it as leverage. 

“What do you want? I don’t have anything worth taking.” Which was true. He may be a paladin of Voltron, but they’d left Earth with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and even back on his home planet he’d had jack shit worth anything. 

“Perhaps not materially.” Slowly, the man unfolded his thin legs and got to his feet. Keith hadn’t been able to tell this back at the entrance, but he was nearly three inches taller than him, and he used that height to tower over Keith as he came closer. 

“Here’s how this is going to work.” He pressed into Keith’s space, forcing him to back up, and angled himself to steer them over to the rightmost wall. Keith pressed his hands flat against the bumpy wallpaper and tried to swallow down the instinct the punch the man just to make him get out of his space. “You are going to do whatever I tell you for the rest of the night, or I will have every single one of your friends arrested.”

He raised his device to prove his point, showing off the writing waiting next to the send button. “Do you know what they do to halfbreeds here?” Keith didn’t answer, but he told him anyway. “They’re chained in the caves, miles beneath the ground, and left to starve.”

Despite his efforts to appear unaffected, Keith’s breath caught in his chest, and the alien was too close to not have noticed. He smirked and Keith felt it all the way down his spine like the touch of spiders.

“So? What’s it going to be?”

Keith’s communicator buzzed lightly in his pocket. He didn’t dare look away from the alien, however, holding his orange gaze while his stomach roiled and cold sweat began to gather at the nape of his neck. The look the man was giving him could only be described as a  _ leer,  _ and he had the sickening idea that he could guess what he’d be forcing him to do. 

He’d never done anything like that before. Never wanted to, or saw the appeal, or the necessity, or had the desire, and every cell in his body was screaming at him to deck this guy in the jaw and make a break for it but Allura had been  _ very  _ clear about how important this treaty was and wasn’t the universe more important than him having a few hours of horror? 

“Fine.” He forced the word from behind his teeth, and the alien gave a terrible grin and leaned forward until Keith was choking on his breath. 

“Good. Right now, I want you to stay still.”

Then he put his hands on him and Keith turned to stone. He was prickly about being touched on a good day with people he knew, so this was just… he didn’t have the words to describe it. How he shivered all the way to his core with disgust when he put his two upper hands on Keith’s shoulders. How his knees went weak with despair when the third one rested on his belt, the last hand still holding the communicator and preventing Keith from attempting escape. 

How tears welled in his eyes when the alien tucked his head under Keith’s chin and pressed his lips to his throat. His nails dug into the wallpaper. 

“You really are pretty, you know,” the man murmured, hands slowly beginning to push Keith’s jacket from his shoulders, “For a Galra.”

Keith couldn’t stop shivering. He wanted to scream, and kick, beat this creep into a pulp and run home to the Castle where they didn’t care what his DNA said. But he didn't. Against every instinct he had, he stayed still and accepted it. For the good of the team.

They both froze at the sound of voices from the corridor. 

“Man, where  _ is he?  _ The ceremony starts in, like, two minutes and Allura is gonna kill us if we aren’t all there!” It was Lance, loud and offended, probably only a few doors down from where he stood hemmed in by his captor. The alien didn’t move his hands, simply leaned in to whisper into Keith’s ear.

“Be quiet.”

Keith bit his tongue and did as he was told.

“I messaged him, but he’s not answering.” That voice belonged to Pidge. “But the tracker puts him somewhere in this vicinity.”

“We really need to make these things more exact,” said Hunk in a low rumble. The man glared and squeezed Keith’s hip hard in warning, as if Keith could control the fact that all their communicators had trackers in them. He swallowed hard as the voices inched closer; he didn’t know whether to hope for being discovered or not. 

“Here, you guys go check the other ends of the hall. He might’ve ducked into a room to get away from the noise,” Pidge said, and the trailing off of footsteps told him that the other two paladins had obeyed. 

Maybe they’d just think they’d interrupted something, and the man would let him go to the ceremony and come back without spilling his secret. It would be humiliating, but the treaty would still go on. 

There was a slight sound from the hallway, like a door handle jiggling, before Pidge moved onto the next door in her line. The alien and Keith stared at each other as the handle on their door began to turn slowly, the man’s eyes burning with rage. He ducked his head back down to Keith’s throat at the first squeak of hinges, probably following the same line of thinking as Keith, and pulled his jacket down until it hung around his wrists. He felt the harsh scrape of teeth and had to swallow bile at the thought of a mark being left behind.

The door opened, and Keith held his breath. 

* * *

At first when Pidge stepped into the room, all she could do was stare blankly. The door snicked shut behind her and the person who had Keith pinned to the wall glanced over his shoulder at her with narrowed orange eyes. For a shocked second she thought she’d walked in on something she wasn’t supposed to, like the last couple of times with Lance, but then she looked at Keith’s face.

She took in the pale cheeks, the wide eyes with moisture gathering at the corners, the clenched shut jaw. She took in all of this… then she pulled her bayard and shocked the hell out of the motherfucker. 

The man immediately took his hands off of Keith as all of his muscles contracted and spasmed, not even able to cry out with all of the volts running through him. She released the button and he collapsed into a pile of limp blue limbs while Keith watched on in shock. 

“Pidge…” 

He was still pressed against the wall, gaping at her, red jacket hanging down around his wrists. The look on his face was pure relief. 

Pidge made her way over to him, nimbly hopping over the alien’s body when it got in her way. The lightly glowing screen of the communicator he’d been holding caught her eye, and she stooped to pick it up out of pure curiosity, which promptly soured into rage when she read the message on it. 

It wasn’t hard to piece together. The man had used the scan at the door to discover Keith’s heritage and used it as blackmail. And judging by the way she’d found them when she came in…

She cut off that line of thought almost instantly. 

“Keith, are you ok?” He nodded, but he was shaking when Pidge reached out to pull his jacket back up where it belonged. “Ok, come on, let's go back to the Castle.”

Keith swallowed hard, glancing down at the body on the floor. “B-but what about the ceremony?”

“Screw the ceremony,” she answered, tucking her bayard away in the inner pocket of her own jacket and pulling out her communicator, deftly typing one handed while deleting the message on the aliens device with her other. 

_ P: I found Keith, taking him to the Castle, do the ceremony without us. No questions. _

After a moment’s thought, she tapped out another message.

_ P: Shiro, get back to the Castle as soon as you can after the treaty signing. _

The moment she put it away it began exploding with tiny vibrations, probably Lance and Hunk questioning why they weren’t coming and Shiro wondering what was going on, but that was a problem for later. Right now she had to worry about Keith. 

“Come on, let’s go,” said Pidge, looping her arm through Keith’s to pull him out of the dark room. He blinked at the light but didn’t fight her as she navigated them through the ballroom, significantly less crowded now that the majority of the guests were gathering for the official signing of the treaty. It might be delayed a bit if the other leaders put up a fuss about the two of them not being there, but it would still get done. 

Keith didn’t speak a word the entire walk back to the Castle. He kept his arms wrapped around himself and his head down, and all the way Pidge burned with anger brighter than Sol. 

_ How dare he?  _ She thought on a loop.  _ How dare he touch Keith?  _ She hated him. She hated that man, and the leaders who hated Galra enough to make it possible, and the entire system. She even hated Allura and Shiro, just a little bit, for making Keith leave his knife behind and making him think there was no other way out. 

Once they got home she took him to his room, turned on the lights and sat him down on his bed. He seemed a little more relaxed being back in the Castle, but still frozen, probably in shock, and when she tried to hug him he flinched away. So she backed off, took up a guarding position at his door and settled down to wait for Shiro to return and to fend off the other worried denizens of the ship. Her communicator screen was a mess of notifications. 

_ L: Where’d you find him? _

_ L: Pidge? _

_ H: Why are you taking him back? _

_ S: Pidge, what’s going on? _

_ S: What happened to Keith? _

_ S: Is he hurt? _

_ S: PIDGE _

_ A: Paladins, get to the ceremony now, we can deal with this after _

_ A: We’re on our way back. Status report Pidge? _

_ L: Come on Pidgeon you’re freaking us out Hunk is crying _

_ S: pidge please _

She took a deep, shuddering breath and let it out slow before finally responding. 

_ P: Meet me in the dining room when you get here and I’ll explain everything.  _

_ C: Are we going to need a pod? _

_ P: No _

“The others are on their way back.”

Keith perked up a bit at that, asking, “Shiro?” In a small voice. Pidge nodded, relieved he was talking again.

“Yeah, Shiro’s with them. Do you wanna see everybody when they get back or just Shiro?”

Keith shook his head. “Just Shiro.”

“Alright. Just Shiro.”

* * *

Shiro paused just outside Keith’s door. His human hand trembled at his side, itching to bury itself into the wall and vent some of the rage building. 

He should’ve let Keith bring his knife. He should’ve stayed closer to him. He shouldn’t have made him hide who he was. So many things he shouldn’t have done, but now all he could do was be angry at himself and Allura and the man who dared to put his hands on Keith, and then try to bury that anger long enough to help the person who never deserved any of this. 

Softly, he knocked on the door. 

“Keith? Can I come in?”

The answer was quiet, but affirmative, so Shiro pushed the button to open the door and stepped inside. Keith was still in his formal wear, sitting on the edge of his bed, staring vacantly at the opposite wall with a vague frown.

Shiro carefully made his way over and perched next to him. For a moment there was silence.

“Can I hug you?”

Keith didn’t even answer that time. He just let himself list to the side until Shiro caught him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. His tuxedo jacket was stiff against Shiro’s dress shirt. 

“I hate this,” Keith murmured, so quietly it barely stirred the air. “Being Galra. No one trusts me, and things like this just keep happening.”

“I know. I wish I could change it.”

Keith sniffled, but Shiro didn’t mention it, knowing he didn’t like it when people paid too much attention to him when he was upset. 

“I don’t know why I’m freaking out,” he said, voice raw, “He didn’t even do anything--”

“Don’t say that. He touched you when you didn’t want him to and that’s plenty to be upset about.”

“I let him.”

“No you didn’t. He was blackmailing you.”

Keith hiccuped a tiny sob into his shoulder, and Shiro turned so that he could wrap his other arm around Keith as well, squeezing as tight as he dared. For a while they just sat there, Shiro letting Keith cry it all out, and neither one of them spoke until his breaths stopped shuddering in his back.

“If this ever happens again, I want you to say no.”

Keith went still. “What?”

“If someone tries to use this against you again, don’t go along with what they want.”

“But… the war is more important…”

_ “No.”  _ Shiro really couldn’t hug him any tighter without straining his ribs, but he tried anyway. “No, Keith. You’re important. It’s not worth it.”

Keith took a deep, deep breath, buried himself into Shiro’s chest, and didn’t answer. 

 


End file.
